Who out there is currently training for an endurance race or athletic event? For those of you who are, are you battling any nagging aches and pains? Unfortunately, both competitive and recreational athletes are subject to injury and it is well established that the majority of symptoms related to your training program are most likely the result of over-training. Think of over-training as being synonymous with overuse, and overuse described as repetitive and excessive microtrauma that overloads various musculoskeletal tissues. More simply, tissue breakdown exceeds tissue repair, leading to injury. With respect to endurance sports such as running or cycling, over-training can include excessive mileage, a rapid change in intensity/pace, and/or a sudden increase overall training distance. In other words, too much, too soon, too fast. A recent study reported that approximately one-third of runners with injuries described that they had changed their running routines just prior to their injury development. Another study demonstrated that injured runners had an average progression in weekly distance prior to injury of 31%, whereas the non-injured controls had a progression of 22%.

So what can we do to minimize our risk of injury while progressing through a training program? Here are a few tips:

• Progress slowly

  • As touched on, the majority of overuse injuries follow sudden or significant increases in duration or intensity. When participating in endurance sports, such as running or cycling, we want to follow the 10% rule, which states that we should not increase our weekly training mileage by more than 10% week-to-week. For example, if I run 20 miles this week, next week I should run no more than 22 miles in order to minimize my risk of injury while still adding mileage.

• Listen to your body

  • Think of pain as an alarm system within our body, alerting us of a potential injury to our tissues. Pain experienced in conjunction with your training program could be your body’s way of warning you of an impending injury if you continue to push it. Avoid taking medications like ibuprofen before a training run or workout, as to not impact your body’s ability to alert you of the need to stop.

• Mix it up

  • Many individuals focus on training for their primary sport nearly every day per week. This behavior stresses the same tissues in the same way day-in and day-out, leading to an increased risk of injury. Solution? Try participating in other physical activities or sports one to two days per week. For example, if you are a runner, try going cycling in order to get your cardio for the day. Or if you are a rock climber, take a day off and go to a yoga class. The key is using your body in a different way than you do in your typical training program.

• Take a break

  • While this is somewhat obvious, many of us are guilty of burying our heads in the sand and bucking this recommendation. Rest is important in both injury prevention and performance. Well rested tissues will function better than chronically overused tissues.

• Cool off

  • Applying a cold pack to a region of the body that is hurting after an intense workout can be an effective way to reduce or eliminate discomfort. This is a much safer long-term alternative to popping ibuprofen each and every day.

Happy training!

-Grant Hennington, DPT